Recent progress on the diagnosis of 2019 Novel Coronavirus

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a global pandemic. Therefore, convenient, timely and accurate detection of SARS-CoV-2 is urgently needed. Here, we review the types, characteristics and shortcomings of various detection methods, as well as perspectives for the SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis. Clinically, nucleic acid-based methods are sensitive but prone to false-positive. The antibody-based method has slightly lower sensitivity but higher accuracy. Therefore, it is suggested to combine the two methods to improve the detection accuracy of COVID-19.